Hooray: Titanfall's mystery beta won't exchange access for pre-orders

If it were my job to be unhelpful, I’d list all the things I can’t tell you about the Titanfall beta. I can’t tell you when it starts, for instance, or when it finishes. I can’t tell you what colour the skybox will be, or whether you’ll be there. I can’t tell you if its match-end scripted sequence culminates in a direct assault on Call of Duty: Ghosts’ multiplayer component, where mechs will stomp about as final payment for Activision’s fall-out with Infinity Ward.

Can’t tell you any of that. But I can tell you that Respawn won’t ask players to buy in early to become a beta tester.

“Pre-Order Now and Be the First To Fall,” implores a missive on the Titanfall site. Ambiguous, isn’t it?

Would-be players thought so. They took to Twitter to ask Respawn head Vince Zampella what precisely the crack was with the beta, and the following exchange ensued:

@x_Ramone will not require a pre-order, but no more details than that yet... =/

Fingers-crossed this is a proper public stress test to dispel the memory of Battlefield 4's beta - which ran on a safe, month-old version of the game and resulted in a launch cock-up we're all familiar with and still feeling the effects of. Sigh.

Whispers have placed a Titanfall beta launch around Valentine’s Day, when the eyes of the world’s press will be lost deep in those of their partners. Cunning. It’ll definitely be on PC, and probably be dead good. So keep a lookout, will you?